It’s Thursday morning, and this will be my last article before the long
holiday weekend. That said, there’ll be plenty to “study” over the next
four days, care of thislink
to the entire, nearly three-hour proceedings of last week’s Houston “Q&A
Rap Session” with myself and Miles Franklin’s President and Co-Founder, Andy
Schectman – hosted by one of the true “good, smart people” in this business,
Daniel Ameduri of Future Money Trends. In it, essentially every
topic you can imagine is covered – all of it, with no strings attached.
As was the case at previous sessions in Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and Ft.
Lauderdale; and will be so at our Chicago session on June 24th
(email me at ahoffman@milesfranklin.com
if you’d like to attend).
As for today’s situation, never before has such a perfect storm of
“PM-bullish, everything-else-bearish” news flow prevailed – amidst, care of
historic market manipulation, record-high financial “asset” valuations, and
record low valuations of real money. I mean, how much more
blatant can it be that since last year’s “Eastern
Point of No Return,” the Chinese government has been utilizing the “hail
mary” algorithm to protect its markets?
…although it hasn’t yet learned how to execute the “dead ringer” algo,
which is probably why the Shanghai Exchange is closer to multi-year lows than
highs…
As for the gold Cartel, basking in its short-term, unequivocally “Pyhrric”
victory, only a dolt can’t see how it’s “set up shop” at $1,230/oz – having
utilized seven “Cartel Herald”
algorithms in the past 28 hours alone to cap gold there, amongst a veritable
blizzard of gold-bullish headlines.
For the record, in 14 years of gold watching, I have neverseen the Cartel
Herald algo in any market other than PMs – where it occurs every time
gold or silver attempt to rise. And man, it’s uncanny how the
12:00 PM EST “cap of last resort” is used to quash burgeoning PM rallies;
although in the past year, it’s been closer to 11:30 AM EST, as we saw in
silver on Tuesday and Wednesday…
But don’t listen to “conspiracy theorists” like the Miles Franklin Blog.
I mean, Deutschebank’s admission that it, along with a cadre of other
“bullion banks,” suppressed gold and silver prices for the past 15 years must
be a figment of our imagination. Or yesterday’s announcement that
Citigroup is paying a $425 million fine for manipulating interest
rates. Or yesterday’s U.S. Appellate Court ruling that 16 of the
world’s largest banks can be civilly sued – for potentially, hundreds of
billions of dollars – for manipulating LIBOR.
Or heck, Alan Greenspan’s 1998 admission that…
“Central banks stand ready to lease gold in increasing quantities
should the price rise.”
Or then Bank of England governor Eddie George’s 2000 admission that,
following gold’s post Washington Agreement spike from $255/oz to $310/oz…
“We looked into the abyss if the gold price rose further. A
further rise would have taken down one or several trading houses, which might
have taken down all the rest in their wake. Therefore at any price, at any
cost, the central banks had to quell the gold price, manage it. It was
very difficult to get the gold price under control but we have now
succeeded. The US Fed was very active in getting the gold price down.
So was the U.K.”
Or then Bank of International Settlements’ Economic Chief William White’s
2005 admission, via a speech to “central bankers and academics” at the BIS’s
fourth annual conference – in a speech titled, LOL, “The Past and Future of
Central Bank Co-operation” – that the “intermediate objectives of central
bank co-operation” include…
“…the provision of international credits and joint efforts to influence
asset prices, especially gold and foreign exchange, in circumstances where
this might be thought useful.”
…as exemplified by this headline on Europe’s largest news service
on December 7th, 2011 – i.e., “Operation PM Annihilation II”; at
the Cartel’s time-tested “key attack time #1” of 10:00 AM EST, when gold
spiked just after an “unexpected” ECB rate cut (which, after the gold
smashing damage was done, was mysteriously retracted, without being confirmed
or denied)…
“MNI NEWS via BLOOMBERG – Market sources report Bank of International
Settlements, Bank of England, and Federal Reserve were selling gold after it
popped to session high at GMT 1335.”
And by “gold smashing damage,” I mean this – catalyzed by, what do
you know, the “Cartel Herald” algo. As clearly, the Cartel was
desperate to prevent another run at $2,000/oz – and thus, drew an “historic”
line in the sand at the key round number of $1,750/oz. But hey, I must
be making all this up, as there’s no way a paper trading monstrosity
like thiscould
have any manipulative effect on the “price discovery” mechanism.
But I digress, as the aftermath of last week’s “FOMC Minutes Attack” has
my dander up. Clearly, the “powers that be” are closer than ever to
losing control – and unquestionably, said “attack” will only make a world already
buying Precious Metals at record levels that much more likely to add to
their positions. And inevitably, end the “New York Gold Pool’s”
tyrranical reign, like the “London Gold Pool” before it.
That said, it’s not just physical supply and demand that’s working against
them, but the inexorable advancement of “Economic Mother Nature” and the
“unstoppable tsunami of reality.” Today’s miserable Tiffany’s and
Costco sales figures, for instance; or the CEO of McDonald’s stating that
Obama’s insane, vote-pandering gambit to raise the minimum wage will cause
“McAdee’s” to build job-destroying robots; or French labor unions shutting
down 19 nuclear power plants, in search of more free money; or the currency
of Nigeria – the most populous nation in Africa – on the verge of collapse;
or the U.S. launching massive steel import tariffs against China; or this
week’s near-recessionary PMI manufacturing and service indices; or massive
demand for the Treasury’s 2- and 5-year Treasury auctions, despite the
June “rate hike” the Fed is supposedly considering; or the utter explosion
of health insurance costs, which will worsen dramatically due to America’s –
and the entire Western world’s – hideous demographic tragedy unfolds.
However, what really garnered my attention in the past 24 hours was the
seemingly endless sea of stories about corporations, municipalities, and
sovereign nations desiring – or in desperate need of – bailouts.
Yes, “bailouts” – which in layman’s terms, mean stealing from innocent
bystanders, like us, to fund profligate or fraudulent enterprises or
governments, via either taxation or the printing press. Or heck, our
own bank deposits, now that most Western nations have adopted “bail-in”
protocols (why anyone would keep significant funds in the insolvent,
criminal, zero interest paying banking system is beyond me).
This week alone, the “U.S. territory” of Puerto Rico was quietly “bailed
out” by Congress – further solidifying its $70 billion of unpayable debt as
U.S. citizens’ ultimate obligation. And yet, Congress is simultaneously
debating a bill to prevent actual U.S. States from being bailed out –
many of which, like Illinois, California, and New Jersey, as well as many of
the municipalities within them – desperately need them, or will so in the
future. And don’t forget the Central States Pension Fund, which is on
the verge of cutting benefits to hundreds of thousands of blue collar workers,
due to the insolvency caused by eight years of zero interest rate
policy. Which, I assure you, is just the “tip of the iceberg” for
countless pension plans, insurance companies, and other organizations
dependent on fixed income to survive.
Across the pond, Greece was supposedly “bailed out” again – to the chagrin
of the majority of citizens, who a year ago voted against such “help”; not to
mention, the IMF, which says it wants no part of it. Meanwhile, Swiss
citizens will next week vote on the “Unconditional Basic Income” referendum;
i.e., whether the government should “bail them out” from the monstrous
inflation the “conservative” Swiss National Bank has wrought – by selling the
nation’s gold, printing trillions of Francs, and pegging them to the dying
Euro. And in Japan, alas, none other than Bill Gross opines that the
Bank of Japan – i.e., a de facto government agency – should buy up whatever
Japanese government bonds it doesn’t yet own, and “forgive” the governments
obligations. In other words, allow it(self) to default.
This, from the “Bond King” himself!
My friends, I hope that whilst enjoying the long holiday weekend – at
least here in the States – you ponder just how close the world at large is to
its inevitable “Jimmy Shaker Day.” That is, when decades of stupidity,
arrogance, and profligacy come home to roost – with no ability to “bail
itself out.” In much of the world, this has already occurred –
but if you’re one of the lucky few, living in places where you can still
proactively prepare for a bleak economic (and political) future, I sincerely
hope you’ll use this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to “bail yourself out,”
whilst you still can.
